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Artist
Max Romeo
12+ albums
reggaeroots reggaedubrootsRasta
about
Max Romeo (born Maxwell Livingston Smith in St. D'Acre, St. Ann, Jamaica, on 22 November 1947' died 11 April 2025) was a reggae and roots reggae recording artist who has achieved chart success in his home country, and in the UK. The singer who put the rude in rude boy, Max Romeo was responsible for launching an entirely new sub-genre of reggae, whose overtly suggestive lyrics caused an outcry but took a massive hold of the music scene regardless. Yet innuendo was the least of the singer's stylings, previous to the release of his infamous "Wet Dream," Romeo had garnered a string of sweet hits with the vocal trio the Emotions. And once the nocturnal naughtiness faded, the singer established himself as one of the most important figures in the roots scene. He left home at the age of 14 and worked on a sugar plantation outside Clarendon, cleaning out irrigation ditches, before winning a local talent competition when he was 18; prompting a move to the capital, Kingston, in order to achieve a successful musical career. In 1965 he joined up with Kenneth Knight and Lloyd Shakespeare in The Emotions, whilst also working as a record plugger for Ken Lack's Caltone label. The group were unsuccessful in auditions for other producers, but Lack offered them an audition after overhearing Smith singing to himself as he worked one day. In 1966, the group had their first hit, with the Lack-produced, "Buy You a Rainbow". The Emotions went on to have several hit singles and by 1968, the singer
top songs
albums
War Ina Babylon
Best Of
The Coming of Jah: Max Romeo Anthology 1967-76
War Ina Babylon (Expanded Edition)
Open the Iron Gate 1973 - 1977
Wet Dream: The Best Of Max Romeo
Soul Fire - An Introduction To
Pocomania Songs
Ultimate Collection
Best Of Max Romeo
The Max Romeo Catalog Chapter 1 - Verse 1-16
The Coming of Jah - Anthology 1967-76